PRAMOD KUMAR SRIVASAVA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are 59 Petitioners who all claim themselves to be working for Bettiah Raj for many a years. They are either Class-III or IV employees purportedly appointed by the Member, Board of Revenue, in the background that the State of Bihar is managing the estate as a Court of Wards after independence. The Bettiah Estate, its management and its control was taken over by the British Government under the Court of Wards Act as far back as on 1st April, 1897. Thereafter it has been managed under the provisions of the said Act by successive Governments.

(2.) Petitioners claim that by virtue of number of years they have worked coupled with the fact that it is the Member, Board of Revenue, who is managing the Estate, the Petitioners have acquired a right and they ought to be regularized and given all the benefits of a Government servant.

(3.) The Bettiah Raj and the Estate thereto has not vested in the State of Bihar. It still has its own entity despite the dispute being dragged on from one century to the other. By no stretch of imagination or interpretation it can be said that merely because the Estate is being managed by Member, Board of Revenue as a Court of Wards, the engagement or employment of persons by the Member, Board of Revenue would give them the status of a Government servant.